Cursor control device

ABSTRACT

A cursor control device includes a main body, a circuit board, a base, a touch support stand, a touch sensor and a knock sensor. The circuit board is disposed within the main body. The base is disposed within the main body and above the circuit board, and includes an elongated slot. The touch support stand is mounted on the base and aligned with the elongated slot. The touch sensor is supported on the touch support stand and electrically connected to the circuit board. In response to a touching action on the touch sensor, a screen scrolling signal is generated. The knock sensor is mounted on the circuit board and under the touch support stand. The knock sensor is triggered when the touch support stand is moved to touch the knock sensor.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a cursor control device, and moreparticularly to a cursor control device having a slim-type touch sensorfor activating a third-button signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nowadays, computers become essential data processing apparatuses in thedigitalized and electronic societies. For helping the user well operatethe computer system, the hardware and the software associated with thecomputer system are developed in views of humanization anduser-friendliness. For example, in addition to the basic functions ofcontrolling cursor movement and selecting an item on the option menu,the mouse device (which is also referred as pointing device or cursorcontrol device) has extended functions. For example, the mouse devicemay have a scroll wheel assembly or a tilt wheel assembly forcontrolling vertical and horizontal movement of the cursor.

Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic perspective view of a tilt wheel typemouse 10 is illustrated. The tilt wheel type mouse 10 is developed incombination of the wheel button technology and the tilt wheeltechnology. The tilt wheel assembly 11 of the mouse 10 can be rotatedforwardly or backwardly, or tilted toward the left or right side,thereby scrolling the image shown on graphic user interface or thewindow interface upwardly, downwardly, leftward or rightwards. When thetilt wheel assembly 11 is pressed down, a knock sensor is triggered, sothat the functions of a wheel button are enabled. Since the tilt wheelassembly 11 is arranged between a left click button 12 and a right clickbutton 13, the wheel button is also referred as a third click button.Depending on the manufacturer's or the user's design, the functions ofthe third click button are varied.

For minimization, as shown in FIG. 2, a slim mouse 20 having a touchthin film switch 21 is developed. Since the level of the mouse 21relative to the desk plane is lower than that of the mouse 10 having thescroll wheel assembly 11, the mouse 20 of FIG. 2 is slimmer and hasreduced overall volume.

As known, the touch thin film switch 21 is a thin film array switchimplemented by plural electronic components (not shown), which arediscretely arranged at regular intervals. By using the user's finger totouch a surface of the touch thin film switch 21, the scrollingdirection is determined according to the initial and final touchinglocations. As a result, the slim mouse 20 has the functions identical tothose activated by rotating the scroll wheel assembly.

Unfortunately, although the slim mouse 20 has the touch thin film switch21 to execute the functions as the conventional scroll wheel assembly,the third click button lacks the mechanism as the knock sensor of thethird click button. Therefore, the slim mouse 20 has only a left clickbutton 22 and a right click button 23 but fails to execute the extendedfunctions as the third click button.

In views of the above-described disadvantages resulted from the priorart, the applicant keeps on carving unflaggingly to develop a cursorcontrol device according to the present invention through wholeheartedexperience and research.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cursor controldevice having a slim-type touch sensor for activating a third-buttonsignal

In accordance to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided acursor control device. The cursor control device comprises a main body,a circuit board, a base, a touch support stand, a touch sensor and aknock sensor. The circuit board is disposed within the main body. Thebase is disposed within the main body and above the circuit board, andincludes an elongated slot. The touch support stand is mounted on thebase and aligned with the elongated slot. The touch sensor is supportedon the touch support stand and electrically connected to the circuitboard. In response to a touching action on the touch sensor, a screenscrolling signal is generated. The knock sensor is mounted on thecircuit board and under the touch support stand. The knock sensor istriggered when the touch support stand is moved to touch the knocksensor.

In an embodiment, the touch sensor is a touch thin film switch.

In an embodiment, the touch support stand has a protrusion edge and ahooking part.

In an embodiment, the touch support stand is coupled with the base viaan elastic connecting part, wherein the base, the touch support standand the elastic connecting part are integrally formed.

In an embodiment, the cursor control device further comprises two tiltoperation keys and two tilt sensing switch. These two tilt operationkeys arranged at bilateral sides of the touch sensor and mounted on thebase. These two tilt sensing switch are protruded from bilateral sidesof the touch sensor and under the two tilt operation keys, respectively.

The above objects and advantages of the present invention will becomemore readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art afterreviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings,in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional tilt wheel typemouse;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional slim mousehaving a touch thin film switch;

FIG. 3 is a schematic outward view of a cursor control device accordingto a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic exploded view illustrating the inner structure ofthe slim mouse shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an assembled view of the slim mouse of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a cursor control device according to asecond preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein only thetouch support stand and the base are shown in the drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 3, a schematic outward view of a cursor control deviceaccording to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention isillustrated. In this embodiment, the exemplary cursor control device 30is a slim mouse. For clarification, only partial components are shown inFIG. 3.

The slim mouse 30 of FIG. 3 comprises a main body 300, a touch sensor 31and two tilt operation keys 32 and 33. By moving the user's finger onthe touch sensor 31, a screen scrolling signal is generated to controlvertical scrolling movement of the image shown on the display screen ofthe computer system. An example of the touch sensor 31 includes a thinfilm array switch, as is described in FIG. 2. The tilt operation keys 32and 33 are arranged on bilateral sides of the touch sensor 31. Bypressing down the click buttons 32 and 33, the functions of the tiltwheel assembly are enabled, and thus the image shown on the displayscreen is continuously scrolled leftwards or rightwards. Hereinafter,the detailed structure and the operation principles of the slim mouse 30will be illustrated as follows in more details.

Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a schematic exploded view illustratingthe inner structure of the slim mouse 30. In the main body 300 of theslim mouse 30, a circuit board 34, a base 35 and touch support stand 36are included. The circuit board 34 has several electronic componentsmounted thereon for controlling operation of the slim mouse 30. The base35 is disposed above the circuit board 34. The touch support stand 36 isused for supporting the touch sensor 31 thereon. After the touch sensor31 lies flat on the touch support stand 36, the combination of the touchsensor 31 and the touch support stand 36 is mounted on the base 35.

Please refer to FIG. 4 again. The base 35 includes an elongated slot 351aligned with the touch support stand 36. In addition, the touch supportstand 36 has a protrusion edge 361 and a hooking part 362 protruded fromthe periphery thereof. Via the protrusion edge 361 and the hooking part362, the touch support stand 36 is engaged with the sidewalls of theelongated slot 351. As a consequence, the touch support stand 36 willnot be detached from the base 35 during operation of the slim mouse 30.

As shown in FIG. 4, a knock sensor 37 such as a micro-switch element ismounted on the circuit board 34 and disposed under the touch supportstand 36. The knock sensor 37 is penetrated through the elongated slot351 of the base 35 such that a triggering end 371 of the knock sensor 37is in contact with the touch support stand 36. Especially, thetriggering end 371 of the knock sensor 37 is made elastic. In accordancewith a major feature of the present invention, the functions of thethird click button is enabled when the knock sensor 37 is triggered.That is, once a depressing force is exerted on the touch support stand36, the touch support stand 36 is shifted vertically toward the circuitboard 34 to trigger the knock sensor 37. In response to the depressingforce, a knock sensing signal is generated. Due to the elastic propertyof the triggering end 371, the touch support stand 36 can be movedupwardly to its original shape after the depressing force is relieved.

Please refer to FIG. 4 again. The tilt operation keys 32 and 33 aremounted on the base 35 at the locations as shown in the dotted lines.Two tilt sensing switch 321 and 322 are protruded from bilateral sidesof the touch sensor 31 and under the tilt operation keys 32 and 33,respectively. When a pushing force is exerted on the tilt operation keys32 and 33, the tilt sensing switch 321 and 322 are respectivelytriggered to control horizontal scroll movement of the image. Moreover,a left click button sensor 352 and a right click button sensor 353 aredisposed on the base 35 at the locations corresponding to the left clickbutton and the right click button of the slim mouse 30, respectively. Bythe way, the tilt sensing switch 321 and 322 are optionally equippedaccording to the manufacturer's design.

As shown in FIG. 4, the slim mouse 30 further comprises an indicationring 38 for coupling the touch sensor 31 with the touch support stand36. The field defined by the indication ring 38 means the allowablerange of moving the user's finger on the touch sensor 31.

Referring to FIG. 5, a schematic assembled view of the slim mouse ofFIG. 4 is illustrated. By moving the user's finger on the touch sensor31 along the direction a1, the touch sensor 31 is triggered to scrollthe image shown on graphic user interface upwardly or downwardly. Whenthe tilt operation keys 32 and 33 are pressed down along the directiona2, the tilt sensing switch 321 and 322 are triggered to controlhorizontal scroll movement of the image. In a case that a pushing forceis exerted on the touch sensor 31 along the direction a3, the knocksensor 37 under the touch support stand 36 is triggered to enable thefunctions of the third click button.

A further embodiment of a cursor control device is illustrated in FIG.6. In this embodiment, the touch sensor, the indication ring and thecircuit board included therein are similar to those shown in FIG. 4, andare not redundantly described herein. For clarification, only the touchsupport stand and the base are shown in the drawing. The base 45includes an elongated slot 451 aligned with the touch support stand 46.The touch support stand 46 is coupled with the base 45 via elasticconnecting parts 461 and 462. It is preferred that the base 45, thetouch support stand 46 and the elastic connecting parts 461 and 462 areintegrally formed. Since the touch support stand 46 is coupled with thebase 45 via elastic connecting parts 461 and 462, once a depressingforce is exerted on the touch support stand 46, the touch support stand46 is shifted vertically toward the circuit board to trigger the knocksensor with the connecting portion A1 serving as the fulcrum.

From the above embodiment, the cursor control device of the presentinvention is capable of scrolling the image shown on the display screenby using a thin film array switch. In addition, due the specialmechanism including the touch support stand and the base, the cursorcontrol device of the present invention can activate the third axlefunctions, i.e. the functions of the third click button.

While the invention has been described in terms of what is presentlyconsidered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is tobe understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosedembodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit andscope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similarstructures.

1. A cursor control device comprising: a main body; a circuit boarddisposed within said main body; a base disposed within said main bodyand above said circuit board, and including an elongated slot; a touchsupport stand mounted on said base and aligned with said elongated slot;a touch sensor supported by said touch support stand and electricallyconnected to said circuit board, wherein a screen scrolling signal isgenerated in response to a touching action on said touch sensor; and aknock sensor mounted on said circuit board and under said touch supportstand, wherein said knock sensor is triggered when said touch supportstand is moved to touch said knock sensor.
 2. The cursor control deviceaccording to claim 1 wherein said touch sensor is a touch thin filmswitch.
 3. The cursor control device according to claim 1 wherein saidtouch support stand has a protrusion edge and a hooking part.
 4. Thecursor control device according to claim 1 wherein said touch supportstand is coupled with said base via an elastic connecting part, whereinsaid base, said touch support stand and said elastic connecting part areintegrally formed.
 5. The cursor control device according to claim 1further comprising: two tilt operation keys arranged at bilateral sidesof said touch sensor and mounted on said base; and two tilt sensingswitch protruded from bilateral sides of said touch sensor and undersaid two tilt operation keys, respectively.